Phil Guy!

If you are willing to help, please email us at sc@scgrahamfoto.com. Include your email and/or phone, name and what you could do and when. We will pass on your information to those working to organize this effort.

Thanks in advance for everything!

Sadly, there is no guarantee that your family photographs will be completely okay and show no signs of damage. However, there are a few steps that you can take that will help.

1. Remove any wet photographs from the frames, stacks or albums that they are in IMMEDIATELY, while they are still wet. Do this slowly and with care so that you do not tear or damage the emulsions of the prints further.

   If your images are in photo albums with plastic pages, STOP! Do not pull the photos out of the pocket or page right away. Test the paper’s emulsion by choosing a “less important photo” and removing it from the sleeve. If you see any damage occurring to the print’s surface stop. You may have to cut the plastic around the photo and slowly peel the plastic from the face of the image slowly.

2. Find a cool, dry place (not outside or in the direct sun) where you can lay the pictures out for as long as needed. Do not layer them or allow them to touch each other because as they dry the emulsions will begin to stick to each other and again, the potential for further damage is present.

   Also, do not lay anything on a wet photograph to flatten it. When it is dry and you remove the book or whatever you use, the emulsion is almost certainly guaranteed to tear away from the paper and cause more damage than an unflattened photograph will have. Paper will likely curl slightly and be stiff once dried, but it is better than having no image at all or significant portions ripped away.

   View our method when a portion of our photographic archives were flooded a couple months ago.

3. Leave the photographs where they are, do not touch them or move them, until they are completely dry. This may be a day or 3 days, it depends on many factors and right now with the humidity it will take even longer.

   They should not be wet, or even damp, when you gather them up to be stored again or all of your efforts will have been in vain and mold and mildew may still grow on the papers.

4. When they are dry do not store them in an air-tight container (rubber-maid, etc.) for awhile longer, give them air and time to breathe. This will prevent mold and mildew from growing.

If your most important photos are damaged there is always the possibility of photo restoration to bring them as close to their original condition as possible. If nothing else, have them scanned and new copies printed on fresh photographic paper (not inkjet paper which has a shorter lifespan).

S&C Studios is working on setting up a special service to restore flood-damaged photographs. If you are in need of this service, bring the damaged images to the studio (220 Main, Cedar Falls) and we can discuss the best way to handle your precious family photos. We will be open with limited services beginning Monday the 16th from 11-6 for sure, unless you catch us there at a different time.

If you need help or want to help this should be the place to find it once more people get online…
http://2008flood.org

FEMA is in town and offering assistance. The river is falling but expected to crest again sometime this weekend at the old flood record, which may still threaten the area. We sat in on a city council meeting tonight and steps are being taken for recovery.

Downtown is coming back to life and businesses will begin moving back in this weekend and will hopefully be back in business on Monday. The levy and all the volunteer work this week saved the neighborhood and we all greatly appreciate the efforts. Now the work begins to move back in, clean up what damage we have and get back to work.

Reports from North Cedar are that the waters are falling but the damage is significant for many who have never been hit by a flood. Roads everywhere are damaged and travel is still limited. It is going to take a long time for the city to recover from this one.

Now the concern is downstream. Cedar Rapids is currently going through major evacuations and the downtown is flooded and the river is not supposed to crest there until sometime tomorrow I believe. Iowa City is also feeling the impact.

This link… (opens in Internet Explorer only, so for Firefox users Right Click - Copy Location - Open IE - Paste the address) has some amazing raw footage from their helicopter. I love raw footage because it tells more of the story than the edits and this station has it of almost every spot that is flooding in the state.

Despite the video’s title it is mostly footage of Waterloo, but for those of you who know, Waterloo and Cedar Falls are like the Twin Cities - directly connected literally. Anyway, you get the scope of the lake effect of the flooding in Waterloo, North Cedar, Cedar City and the rest of the flooded areas.

Check out their other raw videos from the copter too!

Now that we’re at home we’re able to watch TV and just saw the most amazing aerial footage of Cedar Falls on the KGAN CBS channel 2 station. I don’t see the video on the website yet, but will pass it along when I find it.

It was overwhelming to see landmarks we know underwater, those places that we haven’t been able to access for a day or two. The city north of the river looks like a giant lake filled with trees, homes and businesses. WOW! Then, to the other side south of the river, you can see that our efforts to keep downtown dry are still working. There is green grass and streets. WOW! WOW!

The river is amazing and taking what she wants. For a couple of river rats who kayak it all the time, we respect the Cedar for all its power and might and this week she is showing her true colors.

The efforts of the city were amazing, there were so many people helping us save downtown and the rest of the city. These images are a tribute to all of those volunteers, many of whom were working for 8-12 hours at a time. Thousands of people made the difference here and we appreciate it with all our hearts. All I can say is “The people of Cedar Falls rock!” With any luck this effort will do the job.

Volunteers sandbagged the studio and other downtown businesses early Tuesday afternoon.

Reinforcing the wall behind the Gateway to the Trails sculpture next to the river was another priority to save downtown.

Loads of filled sandbags were unloaded within minutes thanks to the lines of volunteers.

Saving Cedar Falls’ downtown with sandbags.

Young, old, men and women - everyone was sandbagging and building the wall up.

Piles of sand were trucked in and consumed into bags by hundreds of people.

The 1st Street bridge had water up to the bottom of it, not yet over it and that will probably be the case. However, we did sandbag the corner and the bridge is closed because it is still unstable due to all the water rushing below and hitting it.

From on the 1st Street bridge you can see how high the water is and the sandbagging efforts to prevent any leaks.

Up on the levy behind downtown sandbag lines ran up the hill, building an almost 4 foot high wall of sand on top of the levy. From this vantage you can see that the levy is directly behind not only our studio but the entire downtown district.

One person told me Tuesday when I commented on the amazing volunteer turnout that “We love our downtown.” That was apparent by all of this effort.